The last genuine classic to come from LucasArts, the company that helped define adventure games, Tim Schafer's noir-pastiche follows skull-faced Manny Caldera through a bureaucratic parody of the Land of the Dead. With a look that takes from both Mexican mythology and art deco, Grim Fandango is as unique an artistic statement as mainstream gaming has managed to offer. While loved by devotees, its limited sales prompted LucasArts to back away from original adventures to simply exploit franchises. Schafer went on to bring a similar dark comedy sensibility to the platform game Psychonauts, which is finally receiving a UK release before the end of this year.

The Longest Journey (1999)

Ragnar Tørnquist's adventure arrived in a world that had just started mumbling "the adventure is dead", a morose chorus that rumbles on to this day. It therefore took a while for anyone to notice the quality of this dual-world fantasy tale. April Ryan is one of the form's best-realised female leads - an art student who bounces between these two realms. Not afraid of adult content, yet steering well clear of anything with an exploitative tone, the game eventually secured its much-deserved audience. In fact, its standing increased over the years to the point where a sequel became commercially viable. Dreamfall is expected early next year.

Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999)

Quantic Dream and David Cage's first game, the ponderously named Omikron: The Nomad Soul, was even more ambitious than Fahrenheit. As a games player sucked into an alternate dimension, you made your way through the game by possessing the bodies of various characters as each of your charges died. Drowning in weirdness for weirdness' sake, its adult themes tended towards the more exploitative and puerile. It is primarily worth recalling now as a step towards the much more interesting Fahrenheit and an answer to a gaming trivia question: "Which videogame featured both a soundtrack and an in-game appearance by David Bowie?".

Shenmue (2000)

Sega's detective tale set in late-80s Japan follows the hero's search for his father's killers. As well as the core task, it creates a vivid setting where the player is free to explore and even make a virtual living. While Fahrenheit ignores the larger world, Shenmue pioneered its indirect control methods for action scenes. Conceived as an epic, multipart story by creator Yu Suzuki, it is set to conclude in the forthcoming Shenmue title for the next generation of consoles. It is fondly remembered for extended scenes of accidental homoeroticism where the lead character spends hours walking around the docks, asking people where he can meet up with sailors.